Related

There's something so deliciously satisfying about baking cookies this time of year. Maybe it's the cold and snow outside. Whatever it is, head to the kitchen and bake some memories this holiday season.

Top 10 tips:

1. Follow the recipe. I'm serious. Don't make any last-minute substitutions. Measure accurately. And preheat the oven, so the cookies will be done when the recipe says they will be done.

2. Use the best ingredients you can afford: real butter, fresh flour, fresh spices, fresh nuts.

3. Buy a timer -- and use it. (Or figure out how the one on your stove works. And use it.) Don't trust that you'll remember to take your baking out on time. You've worked too hard to burn them.

4. Don't rush. Ensure you have enough time to chill the dough (if necessary), roll it out and follow the instructions. A tip for rolled cookies? Roll the dough between two pieces of parchment paper, then chill it and cut out your designs. The cold will help your cookies hold their shape when cut.

"Non-stick vegetable shortening is a better bet for most pans. It's flavourless and guarantees that your cake will slide right out of any pan. Avoid vegetable oil, which can burn and can give your finished cake an unpleasant aroma and flavour."

6. "Always place your cookie dough on a cool or room temperature baking sheet," writes Chattman in her book. "If you don't, the dough will start to melt as you work, instead of beginning to bake properly with a hot blast of air from the oven."

7. If the recipe calls for unsalted butter, use it; the salt in regular butter varies from brand to brand, so you can't just use it and cut back on the salt called for in the recipe.

"For the most consistent results, it is better to use unsalted butter and add the precise amount of salt specified in a particular recipe," writes Chattman.

8. Need to bring your eggs to room temperature? Place them "in a bowl of hot tap water for five minutes," writes Chattman.

9. Are they done yet? "One sign that firm cookies, such as sugar cookies, are done: they lift cleanly and lightly off the baking sheet," writes Susan Samson in 12,167 Kitchen and Cooking Secrets (Robert Rose, $27.95).

10. Let cookies cool before putting them in containers. "Store similar cookies together, opposites apart. Separate dry and moist cookies, and those with clashing flavours," writes Samson in her book. "No biscotti with oatmeal cookies or peppermint with gingerbread."

The lowdown on five common Christmas cookie spices:

-Cinnamon: The dried inner bark of the tree of the same name, cinnamon was used by ancient Egyptians for embalming. Nowadays, we Canucks prefer to add it to our baking.

-Cloves: One of the strongest of all spices, cloves are "the dried immature flower buds of a tree in the myrtle family, Syzygium aromaticum, which is native to a few islands in present-day Indonesia," writes Harold McGee in his legendary tome, On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen (Scribner, $49.95).

"In much of the world, cloves flavour meat dishes, while Europeans use them mainly in sweets. . . . By far their largest role is in the Indonesian flavoured cigarette, kretek, which may be 40 per cent shredded clove."

-Ginger: A distant relative of bananas, ginger is also related to cardamom, turmeric and galangal. "The name comes via Latin from the Sanskrit singabera, meaning horns or antlers, which the branched rhizomes resemble," writes McGee.

"To make the dried spice, mature rhizomes are cleaned, scraped to remove most of the skin sometimes treated with lime or acid to bleach them, and then dried in the sun or a machine." Jamaican ginger, McGee adds, is considered to be the world's finest.

-Nutmeg: "When Columbus sailed from Spain looking for the East Indies, nutmeg was one of the spices for which he was searching," write Sharon Tyler Herbst and Ron Herbst in their book, The Deluxe Food Lover's Companion (Barron's Educational Series, $35.99).

The tropical evergreen tree's fruit "is split to reveal the nutmeg seed surrounded by a lacy membrane that, when dried and ground, becomes the spice mace."

-Cardamom: Grown primarily in India, Sri Lanka, Mexico and Guatemala, cardamom is a tall perennial shrub that's related to ginger, according to The Encyclopedia of Herbs, Spices and Flavourings: The Complete Practical Guide for Cooks by Elisabeth Lambert Ortiz (Dorling Kindersley/ Reader's Digest Association, out of print). Each seed capsule must be harvested by hand; perhaps not surprisingly, then, it is one of the world's most expensive spices.

sboettcher@theherald.canwest.com

Comments

We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.

Almost Done!

Postmedia wants to improve your reading experience as well as share the best deals and promotions from our advertisers with you. The information below will be used to optimize the content and make ads across the network more relevant to you. You can always change the information you share with us by editing your profile.

By clicking "Create Account", I hearby grant permission to Postmedia to use my account information to create my account.

I also accept and agree to be bound by Postmedia's Terms and Conditions with respect to my use of the Site and I have read and understand Postmedia's Privacy Statement. I consent to the collection, use, maintenance, and disclosure of my information in accordance with the Postmedia's Privacy Policy.

Postmedia wants to improve your reading experience as well as share the best deals and promotions from our advertisers with you. The information below will be used to optimize the content and make ads across the network more relevant to you. You can always change the information you share with us by editing your profile.

By clicking "Create Account", I hearby grant permission to Postmedia to use my account information to create my account.

I also accept and agree to be bound by Postmedia's Terms and Conditions with respect to my use of the Site and I have read and understand Postmedia's Privacy Statement. I consent to the collection, use, maintenance, and disclosure of my information in accordance with the Postmedia's Privacy Policy.